Sunday, January 29, 2017

"It'll Be Like It Never Happened"

"Dark Interlude."By Mack Reynolds (1917-83) and Fredric Brown (1906-72).First appearance: Galaxy, January 1951.Reprinted many times (HERE).Short short story (8 pages).Online at Archive.org (HERE).(Note: Possibly objectionable language in common use then.)

"Justifiable homicide is a solidly established point of law, but the justification for murder depends on where the killer lives . . . and when!"

Whether we like it or not, the future is coming. In the case of Lou Allenby and his sister Susan, when the future does arrive, bringing with it a truth they both find absolutely unacceptable, there's only one way Lou can think of to deal with it—murder . . .

Resources:- We wonder if Reynolds and Brown were influenced by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's Practical Idealism (1925; HERE); since then, however, the opposite has been proposed (HERE).

The bottom line:I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak Of one that lov'd not wisely but too well . . . — The Moor